The Hunted
by rebornrose
Summary: Two benders lost in the woods find themselves pitted in a fight for survival against one of nature's fiercest predators. Will they ever make it out alive? Doubtful, unless they're willing to cooperate. Can fire and water work together or will they only create steam? Set somewhere between S1 and S2, post Siege of the North Pole. Mini-series.
1. Chapter 1

_so choose your last words, this is the last time_  
_'cause you and I, we were born to die_

_~lana del rey_

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Two figures stood on the field of grass facing one another, the green blades reached up to their ankles and swayed wherever the wind blew them, surrounded by a whole forest of trees the two looked to be caged by nature itself until one defeated the other. Glowering golden eyes narrowed tightly, the left eye seeming to be in constant ire from the ghastly scar that afflicted that side of his face, his jaw locked hard and teeth clenching behind sealed lips in barely contained rage. Opposite him were a pair of usually soothing blues that like the ocean's waves could bring inner peace to the most vile of characters, this time however they met the golden irises with an angry glare of their own, standing her ground she kept a defiant posture while facing him yet relaxed at the same time, much alike her element she was ready for an attack and even more so ready to counter-attack. Him donning ragged, old, dark green Earth Kingdom clothes to blend him in as a refugee and hide his identity, her with clean and fresh clothes that proudly displayed her Water Tribe heritage. Short black hair covering his head, long dark chocolate made into a braid on hers. Diametrically opposites, these two.

"Give it up." He told her with a snarl, his voice making her skin crawl.

"Never." She plainly replied despite the pang of fear she tried so desperately to bury deep within.

"I won't hold back." He warned her and positioned himself for an attack despite being across the field from his opponent. Hands clenched, pulled up to his chest, his breathing steady and a bit of vapour coming out of his mouth, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"I don't need you to." She bit back and got into her own stance, very relaxed in contrast with him, her hands open and palms facing the ground, her water pouch opened and a liquid tendril making its way out of it and floating in the air between her hands.

If possible he narrowed his eyes even more and shot her an angry look. They kept peering at one another; her waiting for the aggressor to start and him mentally planning a course of action. The area was silent, birds stopped chirping for a quiet moment as the tension of the upcoming conflict set in, the leaves stopped rustling in the wind up in the canopy, the grass ceased its swaying, everything stilled. Even the two challengers were unusually muted, their breathing so hushed it was lower than a whisper.

Suddenly the scarred teen striked, taking one quick step forward and punching the air at wind-breaking speed, a potent yellow explosion came out from his fist and flew through the air in the form of a fireball as big as the waterbender's head, he took another step and punched again hard sending another fireball at the girl.

Thankfully for Katara due to their distance his attack took enough time to reach her that she could easily deflect the scorching fireballs with two swipes of her water stream, one for each ball. There was a hiss with every flame that was extinguished, a bit of mist floating in the air that Zuko's heated attacks had evaporated. She looked out at where she expected her enemy to be and noticed with wide eyes that he'd dashed towards her whilst she casually waited for the attack and was now dangerously close to her, having easily ran over half of the field in one single dash. He was jumping into the air still at a distance from her and kicked at the air, sending another attack her way.

Zuko was well aware of his limitations, his strengths and weaknesses. In a long distance fight he'd eventually be soundly defeated; it's in close quarters combat that he truly excelled at, thanks to years of military training. To win, to completely dominate this peasant girl, all he had to do was get close and overwhelm her, he had to make her feel his heat, then her fancy waterbending would be near useless in defending against him. The banished prince noticed with annoyance that Katara had killed his last flame too quick for him to close in as much as he wanted. He needed to try and overwhelm her with attacks again and move in while she was busy. He punched two more balls of scorching death at her and then another quick kick. He didn't manage to take more than two steps before a tendril of water came at him and swiped at his legs. Nearly falling he jumped at the last possible second and landed on the floor away from her reach, throwing a vicious frown.

Katara would admit, it was a bit difficult to keep up with his pace when he started firing fire at her like that, but she was up for a challenge, she knew she could do this. She could defeat him. If she could fight with the best and even impress master Pakku with her abilities, then she could take this brooding teenager, no problem. The way Zuko landed on the floor after dodging her attack and stumbled for a fraction of a second brought glee to her face. She knew she could take him, she just needed a bit of confidence in hersel- her thoughts were interrupted by the look he shot at her, and a shudder went up and down her spine. He was angry now.

"Rah!" he yelled in fury and shot ball after ball of fire from his closed fists. He kept punching the air and sending attacks at Katara with no hint at even losing stamina.

"Gah!" Katara yelped as she struggled to defend against the prince's onslaught at first before getting into a comfortable stride of slashing at his flames, to her credit she managed to use her water to fight back every single shot he fired at her. Not one flame came within arms-length of her body. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her cheek as she extinguished blast after blast, they seemed to be coming faster and faster and this damned firebender wasn't lightening up, not even to catch his breath, her eye wandered over to his form for a split-second and she saw something that made her blood run cold. He was slowly walking towards her while punching fire out of his hands.

Slowly but steady he was gaining ground on her. Each step he took he forced the Water Tribe girl to react to his attacks a fraction of a second faster. In truth he was gaining a whole new respect for her with how bravely she fought back and managed to stand up to him all by herself. It brought back memories from the North Pole when she'd fended him off and protected the Avatar. Zuko's eyes seemed to be in absolute rage at the earlier humiliation of losing his footing, but those flaming golden eyes were directed at the girl, unmoving and wandering over her with a lust for victory. His good eyebrow twitched up when he caught her taking a step back as he took one in her direction. He took another towards her whilst shooting his attack and caught her repeating the process, he growled. Peasant girl had realized his tactic and was being smart; if he dared push her back towards the forest surrounding them it'd be to her advantage. More places to hide, less opportunities for Zuko to attack unless he was willing to burn the whole forest down (which he was, but the prospect of open flames flaring all around him wasn't exactly ideal, and he needed her alive, damn it!)

Zuko did one last kick in her direction followed by punching his two fists out at her at the same that resulted in a larger fireball going after her, hoping that would distract her for one more valuable second, and ran at her as fast as he could.

Katara's eyes shot wide at the larger fireball coming her way after easily subduing at the firekick's flames, she felt herself be pushed back on the grass when she created a water shield to cover her upper body at the last second before the powerful ball crashed into her defences. She gritted her teeth at the momentary scalding warmth felt all around her as the fire was tamed and doused, before lowering her dome-like water shield. He was coming at her now. She didn't need to ponder what was her strategy going forward, it was clear. She bolted away from the prince. Her water was slowly being evaporated and eventually she'd run out of it, and along with it her only defence against this man.

Her wild dash towards the forested area behind her was going to be far from easy; no way he'd ever allow her to escape like that. She could already hear the fire travelling through the air aimed at her, and even though she never looked over her shoulder she could sense his snarl and even more concerning, she could feel that blazing stare of his on the back of her head. If her heart wasn't hammering and her heat rising she might've shuddered again.

A ball of flames barely missed Katara, went flying past the left side of her body and scorched the grass. Another shot came at her, this one flew up by her head and the waterbender had to duck her head and hold onto it with her hands to make sure she wouldn't lose it. Another one came, this one at her feet. Katara felt the heat burn the grass she was just stepping on, it had managed to catch her right leg and the floor below. Luckily for her, her boot protected her from the heat, but the startle made her stumble in her step and she could see herself lurching forwards, about to fall face first, she tucked her knees to her chest and rolled once on the grass, she came to a stop and was about to push herself up to continue running when three balls of fire went over her head again and burned the grass directly in front of her. Katara looked back and with horror realized he was standing over her, less than a couple feet behind her, looking down at her, his face cast in a dark shade as his body eclipsed the sun up in the sky behind him. It was an intimidating sight, despite the lack of light his eyes still shone through it all and stared into hers. He caught her.

He was breathing more heavily than he would've liked as he locked eyes with the girl, he didn't like to let her know that she had somehow managed to get him so tired. Still, he couldn't help but let a smirk show itself as he looked down at Katara. For a second he saw her reach down and touch her foot, inspecting it to see if she'd been seriously burnt. To both their relief her boot was only singed. Good, that's good. He needed her to walk.

A roar came from the forest, making both teens look in the direction it came from. It sounded feline-like, but much more intimidating than a house cat; it was something that would put even mighty mountain wolf-lions to shame and pit fear in brave men's hearts.

"What was that?" Katara asked, her eyes never leaving the dark forested area, she didn't exactly direct her inquiry at Zuko but since he was the only one there he was the one to answer it, his eyes also glued to the same spot she was looking at.

"Doesn't matter," he told her and with one last moment staring at the weird forest he turned his attention back to his prey, "You're coming with me." He told her, his tone made it clear that it was not up for discussion, his arm reaching down and grabbing her wrist to pull her up.

Katara's head jerked back as she felt this guy's hand on her and lost all fear in the unknown lurking behind the treeline. "No." she told him, her free hand going up to try and pry Zuko's fingers from her wrist, her heart sank a bit at the tight grip he had on her and her heart began to pump frantically. Oh no, this was like the pirates all over again, she grumbled mentally and kept trying to remove his hand from her wrist. Not enjoying one bit the warm possessive feeling of his palm and fingers holding tightly onto her slim wrist.

Zuko growled at how difficult she was making everything for him. She was even putting her whole weight on keeping herself on the floor no matter how hard he tried to pull her up to her feet. If she kept this up he'd have to resort to being rougher. Or maybe…

He pulled his free hand up and clenched it into a fist, immediately it came alive with a flame surrounding it and he made a motion that he was about ready to punch her with it. Maybe fear would work and get her to do his bidding.

Katara's eyes shot him a spiteful look, telling him to do it if he dared, which only got Zuko to shoot her a look filled with just as much venom. Something had to break eventually, and each of them intended it to be the other.

That roar came back once more, angrier, fiercer. Also louder, why was it louder? Zuko turned his head to the side to inspect, feeling confident that Katara wouldn't be able to break free from the vice grip he had on her, the prince's eyes went wide, the blood ran from his face and his mouth opened in shock.

Right in front of Katara's eyes a large spotted blur lunged at her captor and rolled him off of her. She grasped her wrist with her other hand and quickly looked at the growling monster that stood a few feet away on four strong legs. Her mouth fell open and a gasp came out.

It looked like a cat. A really big, hairy cat. A huge feline with orange fur and black circular pattern all over its fuzz. It lacked the mane of a lion but it sure as heck dwarfed the king of the jungle. Its tail swung aggressively left and right as it stared down the prince who stood in front of it, his scarred face full of fear but also anger that things kept getting in the way of his plans. Katara couldn't tell since she only got sight of this monster's back, but the beast could also boast to having the sharpest pair of canines he'd ever seen, they were so long they went down a couple of inches past its jaw. The feline's eyes a dark amber glint that mirrored Zuko's eerily close with a faint hue of lime green. Annoyingly enough this creature wasn't completely horrifying, it also had a pair of droopy ears that looked like a rabbit's, they hung down from the top of its head and went even further down than its sharp yellowed teeth, almost grazing the floor.

It snarled and menacingly growled at the prince which made him take a step back in caution. But Zuko gathered his courage and told himself he wouldn't be taking one more step back like a coward, even without his honor he was still no craven. He gulped hard and took a stance, readying himself to blast this kitty cat to smithereens, throwing the overgrown puss his deepest scowl. The beast merely growled at him again and lowered its head, the cat's smouldering amber eyes never leaving the firebender's determined golden ones, it looked ready to lunge with that long tail of its swiping in the air from side to side, daring Zuko to take the first step in this slaughter, and Zuko dared him back just as hard.

Katara took this as divine intervention; even animals seemed to hate the Fire Nation! Carefully she climbed back to her feet and was ready to sneak away, casting her eyes back at Zuko but he didn't seem to notice her, his gaze fixed on the beast in front of him. Then she heard an aggressive growl coming right in front of her. She gulped, hard and turned her head in the direction of the sound. Another large monster like the first one began walking out from the shadows cast by the trees. It was just like the other one that'd saved her from Zuko, perhaps a bit smaller and its canines shorter, but the damn beast was still easily as tall as her stomach even while on its front and hind-legs and those teeth could pierce through bone all the same. It was leering at Katara and inching closer. Somehow she had a feeling this one wasn't intending on rescuing her with the way it hungrily stared.

Instinct took over and the waterbender turned her back to the monster and ran as fast as she could towards the opposite treeline. She could hear the cat that'd taken interest in her roar that scary cry she'd heard earlier and the heavy sound of its paws hitting the ground, immediately chasing her like the prey she was. It was so fast.

At the sound of a second rabbit-eared tiger monster, Zuko took his eyes off his own cat for a second, just a split-second, and caught the waterbender running across the field with a tiger of her own hot on her trail, its mouth baring teeth. A momentary distraction was all the tiger staring Zuko down needed and it lunged at the prince with its claws. The Fire Nation prince barely jumped out of the monster's pounce, falling onto his side in urgency, the tiger quickly lunged once more at Zuko and the prince yet again barely dodged the sharp claws on its paws, rolling around on the grass away from the snarling bloodthirsty monster he got up to one knee and punched a couple fire blasts in retaliation. Maybe the peasant girl had had the right idea, better to be a smart coward that gets to live another day than a brave stubborn corpse.

Closing her eyes hard, Katara willed her legs to keep on going, her muscles protested that she was going too fast and her lungs burned that she needed to pace herself but she threw caution to the wind and ran. Ran like her life depended on it, which it every much did, and before she knew it she'd made it to the treeline, somehow keeping herself a few feet ahead of her predator. She looked over her shoulders as she made it to the trees and saw that the tiger kept coming for her, only a dozen or so feet behind her. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to burst.

She kept running as fast as she could, the tiger was closing in. She did zigzags between the trees to try and lose the beast, the tiger was closing in. She jumped over fallen tree trunks, the tiger was closing in.

Katara could feel its breath tickling the back of her head, almost, or maybe that was just her heightened senses making her feel things that weren't really there. Closing her eyes hard and gritting her teeth in pure fear she braced herself for her inevitable death, mentally saying farewell to Aang, Toph, Momo, Appa, her dad, her brother, and hoping that she'd meet her mom again in the afterlife, praying that her end would come quick and painless.

But something came over Katara at the last second, with a flick of her hand she opened the water pouch she carried and pulled out a thin strip of water. She slashed wildly behind her, trying to keep the beast at bay, the heard something hard being cut in two in a fraction of a second, and the heavy thud of a tree falling behind her, and soon after the angry growl of the tiger. Katara looked over her shoulder and saw the tiger gingerly step over the large tree she'd cut down and an idea came to her mind before the cat monster could continue chasing her. She began slashing wildly at every tree she ran past, knocking it down and making tree blockades between herself and the beast.

She kept running, and thankfully, the tiger was left behind.

Several minutes later Katara fell onto her knees, hunched over with her hands on the mossy ground she gasped for air. She'd been running like a madwoman for what hadd felt like hours now, and even though she hadn't felt the tiger's breath on the back of her neck since she cut down that first tree, she could still hear the lingering roars that echoed around the forest, this monster might not be hot on her trail anymore, but it was still looking for her.

She wanted to lie down on the floor and just die, there was no way she could outrun this rabbit-tiger for much longer. The sound of running water reached her ears and made her head perk-up. Yes! At least with her element by her side she could fight back and fend for herself. Forcing her legs to endure just a few minutes longer she stood and made her way through the trees at a hasty pace and soon enough she came by a cabin located next to a small running creek. Her eyes opened wide and she ran to the wooden cabin, banging on the door loudly.

"Help! Please help! Is anyone there?!" she called out, hoping to be far enough away from the tiger that'd chased her that it wouldn't hear her. One of the bangs of her fist against the wooden made something metallic break and fall onto the floor on the other side of the door, the old wooden entrance swung open eerily, creaking from rusted hinges. Peeking inside Katara instantly noticed it was dark, dusty, and seemed abandoned. But just to make sure, she stepped inside, she noticed her booted foot stepping on the rusty lock she'd broken accidentally. This place must've been abandoned for a while now for it to break by simply banging on the other side of the door.

It didn't take long for Katara to conclude that there really wasn't anybody living here anymore. Aside from a tiny rat that scrambled away with her footsteps there was no living creature there, and certainly no humans. She sighed with disappointment and was going to get out of there when she almost tripped on some weird rough carpet. Looking down at it she caught sight of a pelt the same pattern as those weird cats that'd attacked her and Zuko. Immediately she jumped off of the animal skin lying on the ground, as if it could come back to life.

Lifting her head from that weird animal hide she started noting other little tidbits she initially missed. A couple more pelts of this same species of cat were hanging from opposite walls of this cabin, and a stuffed head hung up in the mantle with the paralysed expression of a might roar. This place was giving her the creeps, so Katara opted to leave. There was nobody here to help her, she needed to fend for herself and find her way back to the group, they'd soon start getting worried with her.

Before she could step foot outside of this dark old cabin something from the corner of it caught her eye, something metallic caught a bit of the sunlight coming in through the open doorway and shone. With a raised eyebrow she approached it. A few spears were stacked neatly against the corner of the cabin, she picked one up and analysed it. It looked, eerily familiar as she examined the long wood handle and the craftsmanship of the tip. Her foot knocking against something on the floor and as she picked it up she came to realize why this looked like something she should know. In her hands she held an old fuzzy wolf helmet, like her people would don when they went to war, and by the markings it looked to be Southern Water Tribe.

Water Tribe men had been here, she came to realize! Maybe there was a small resistance base around here somewhere and she could find her way there.

Her inner thoughts were rudely interrupted by a pair of loud roars echoing throughout the forest not too far from her location. Oh no, another one had shown up. Or wait, had Zuko been killed and now the other tiger had joined in the hunt? Katara looked down in thought and silently hoped the firebender hadn't been killed, hate him and his people as much as she did, she could still not find it in her to wish death on him. He was cruel, evil, and always angry, but she had to remind herself that he was still just a kid like her, probably not even much older than Sokka. No, that firebender was as elusive as he was a jerk, he was surely fine. Jerkbender.

A quick look outside and she saw these hungry beasts weren't yet there so she rushed to the creek and hurried herself up refilling her water pouch. She was about a quarter of the way done when she heard the snap of a twig behind her.

Startled she turned around to check what it had been but a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves tightly around her torso from behind right as she turned. The heat she felt press up against her back was enough to tell her who it was but the purring voice that tickled at the back of her ear confirmed it, "Got you." Zuko said.

Katara struggled, tried to toss and turn in his tight embrace but couldn't do much, her arms pinned to her sides as he held her and as if to taunt her he even picked her up off the ground, her feet dangling in the air she started thrashing them to try and wedge herself from him, grunting and grumping at him as she did. His arms were wrapped so tight against her, she could feel the warmth seep in through her clothes already, the way his arms were crossed directly over her chest made her flustered, if he were facing her he could see the beginnings of a blush on her face. "Let go!"

"Shh!" he ordered her and not a second later another twig snapping was heard. Wait what; Katara thought that had been Zuko distracting her to catch her up from behind.

The banished prince released one of his arms from wrapping around her chest and placed his hand over her mouth, the other arm still securely around her he quickly dragged her across the creek and behind the first tree he could reach, his back pressed up against the dark brown bark, a squirming waterbender pressed up against him with a warm palm covering her mouth.

"Quiet, they're here." His voice low as a whisper. She stopped squirming for a second and looked up at him, catching him peeking around the tree, just barely. She mimicked him and peeked as well, her heart hammering faster and faster.

The two huge cats with big scary teeth and droopy ears came walking out from the forest. Katara noticed immediately that one was the one that'd chased her, the other the one that attacked Zuko. Katara's predator was sniffing at the ground while Zuko's was growling, saliva escaping its mouth.

"You didn't kill him?" she spoke astonished, not even realizing he'd removed his hand from her mouth just a second earlier. She'd taught that the prince had somehow defeated his tiger, and that made her a bit more confident that she too could deal with her own tiger were it needed.

"No." he told her plainly, still looking over at the pair of large felines walking around the cabin. The bigger one looked at the open cabin and growled at it before looking away and walking to the creek and following the stream, the other followed suit.

"They're hunting us now." He said out-loud once the big cats were safely enough away, more to himself than Katara. He quickly put his hand back over her mouth, to which the waterbender resumed her struggles against him and began dragging her across the creek towards the cabin. Zuko needed some rope to tie her with.

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**AN: Hey guys! It's me again, I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my first mini-series, "The Hunted". I want to specify, in case I totally blew the description of the creature, but I intended it to be a mixture of a smilodon (saber-tooth tiger) and a rabbit. It pretty much looks like a saber-tooth tiger but with long droopy bunny ears and a lion's tail. I did think for a moment to give them a little fluffy bunny tail and rabbit teeth but I thought it was more comical that it's an intimidating beast with only one trait that doesn't belong xD**

**I apologize if Katara might've seemed a bit weak, defenceless, and even cowardly this chapter, rereading this I see some areas I could've given her more of a shine, but at the same time it fits perfectly in my mind as is. Please let me know what you all think! Any pacing issues? Out of character moments? Grammar mistakes? Advice? Tips?**

**Next chapter these two are gonna be all alone in the woods at night ;) Lots of fluff is bound to occur.**

_rebornrose_


	2. Chapter 2

_sweet dreams are made of this_  
_who am I to disagree?_

_~eurythmics_

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"This is incredibly degrading."

"I don't care. Keep moving." Zuko gave the back of Katara's shoulder a shove, his tone implying that he was well fed-up with her complaining.

The bound waterbender reluctantly did as he ordered her to, a frown never leaving her face as she trudged on and walked in front of him. Her arms tightly held at the sides of her torso by an old rope Zuko managed to scavenge inside the cabin, the tightness of that rope was already starting to dig into her flesh even through her blue tunic.

"Did you really have to tie me up so tight?" she grumbled, admitting to him that he'd tied her up like some defenceless princess stung at her pride.

He didn't reply, just kept walking barely a step behind her, one of his hands holding onto a bit of the rope he was now using as a makeshift leash. Thoughts that he was treating her like a dog angered Katara and she looked over her shoulder at him with a glare.

"Whatever you're planning isn't going to work."

More silence, Zuko looked ahead, past Katara and kept pushing her forward with a shove to her shoulder whenever she faltered in her step. They'd been walking upstream besides the creek from earlier for nearly half an hour now. The way he was ignoring her at times was chipping at her composure and anger boiled within her throat.

"Do you do anything besides tying girls up and trying to kidnap boys destined to save the world from the mess your people made?" her voice rising and echoing around them slightly in the otherwise silent forest, aside from the gentle noise of water running over the rocks on the creek, birds chirping away happily above the treetops, and their footsteps, nothing else could be heard.

"Quiet." He ordered, his eyes gazing from ahead of them at her face for a second as the word slipped by his lips, then back in front. The prince wasn't keen on getting caught by those damn cats again, especially not now that he had a captive. Her comments about his people bubbling up a bit of anger within him as well.

"What if I don't?" Katara asked and faced forward again, "Not like it'll do me any worse if I get eaten by the weird tigers than if you take me to wherever you're taking me. I'd rather die by the hands of nature's monsters than by a monster like you."

"Well I don't." Zuko replied aggressively, his grip on the bit of rope he was holding tightening. He didn't like to think of himself as a monster. Azula was a monster. Zhao had been a monster. His Fire Lord father was a monster. Zuko saw himself as a man wanting to regain his honor, how could that make him a monster?

"And I'm not planning on killing you." He admitted truthfully, biting his tongue not to shoot her some remark that if she wouldn't shut up for 5 minutes then he'd reconsider his promise.

Katara scoffed, "I'm sure you aren't." Katara was looking up ahead, her chin high and her posture proud, but he could tell she was scowling at him even without looking at her face. There was something about her tone…

Zuko's good eyebrow twitched in irritation, did she not believe him? Why would he go through all this trouble of capturing her if his end goal was to murder her? If he wanted her dead he would've gladly left her for the tigers instead of intentionally helping her out back at the cabin. He kept his lips sealed and glared ahead over Katara's shoulder, thinking that if he let her have the last word she'd quiet down. He was mistaken, of course, not a moment went by before she continued speaking.

"That's all you people know how to do. Kill, kill, pillage, and kill some more." Katara recited to him, Zuko's mouth held closed however, "You try and burn the whole world to ashes, kill everyone that's not like you, and when someone who can stop this madness comes back after 100 years you people try to hunt him down. Well I'm not going to let you shed any more blood!" she looked back at him at that last part, her voice rising to concerning levels.

"Will you shut the hell up?" he snarled at her through gritted teeth, turning her fully around so she was completely facing him, not just her head, and held her by her shoulders and leaned dangerously close.

"No! Screw you!" she yelled inches from his face, "Screw your stupid hunt! Screw the Fire Nation! And screw this damn war!" the waterbending girl's voice kept rising with each word she uttered, she was purposefully trying to get caught by the tigers, she had to! Shooting her one last glare, his scar and burning golden eyes digging a hole in her memory with how angry he looked, he turned her back around and held her to his body with one arm, the other reaching into the back of his pants.

"Fine, if you want to act like an annoying brat, be that way," he pulled out a while piece of cloth, he'd found it back at the cabin and thought it'd be useful as a gag if this peasant started to make too much of a fuss. Wanting to be courteous Zuko hadn't gagged her from the get-go, but now there was no other alternative, he lifted the cloth up to Katara's face and whatever words she was about to throw at him were muffled by the soft fabric and he quickly tied a knot behind her head. "Just don't expect any compassion from me, now move." he pushed her forward to resume their trek.

She didn't do what he said, just stared daggers at him over her shoulder.

"What now? What're you waiting for? Move!" he gave her just as fierce a glare and pointed ahead of them.

Katara kept staring. Her face was red with boiling anger for this man, if her mouth wasn't gagged she'd have already spat at him all the curse words and insulting nomenclature she knew; yelling it at the top of her lungs to make sure every bloodthirsty animal in this forest would hear her and come to investigate. Her breathing was fast, her chest heaving like she wanted to punch him, which she did oh so much, nothing would make her feel better than to give the unburnt side of his face a good smack. That surprisingly pleasant to look at… side of his face… She shook off whatever tangent her brain was about to take her on and sat herself down on the floor casually, legs crossed beneath her. It was a bit weird to keep balance with her arms bound to her sides but she managed nonetheless.

Zuko just stared, he was fuming. He clenched and unclenched his hands. His fists shaking whenever he closed them and the beginnings of smoke coming out from between his fingers.

"Get up. Right. Now." His tone gruff, even the most insubordinate of subjects would pay attention and follow his orders. For a second the tone reminded him of Ozai, but that was a good thing, right? He was a Prince! A banished Prince is a Prince nonetheless, and when a Prince tells some lowly peasant girl to stand up and move then by Agni, that girl should by all rights get up an move!

Katara made a 'humpf' sound from behind her cloth gag and looked away with her eyes closed. To Zuko's eyes she looked like a petulant little child throwing a tantrum. His face still a scowl he looked ahead at their path, his blazing eyes going along the stream and up through a hill, then another, and he couldn't seem anything past that from all the trees. He still wanted to get farther away from those animals from earlier before setting camp for the night. If possible he'd even skip the whole camping part and make her walk with him throughout the night to cover more ground, but now that looked like an unrealistic plan. Zuko paced away from her a few steps and closed his eyes hard, his hands going up to his temples to rub away at the beginnings of a migraine courtesy of this girl.

He suddenly turned back and walked up to the cosily seated Katara, she turned her head to glare up at him and throw her best defiant look, but before she could he knelt before her on one knee, his hands moving to her sides and with an easy heave Katara found herself flung over Zuko's shoulder. Her brain took a moment to process what had just happened; when that happened she realized that this brute was already on the move, carrying her without her permission. She tried to struggle again, but with her arms bound like they were Katara couldn't do much but grind her upper body and face against his back, and that clearly wasn't going to stop him. Her legs couldn't even kick at his chest; his arm was wrapped just below her knees. Her teeth bit hard against the now damp gag and grumbled some sort of muffled insult but he paid her no mind.

The sun had already sunk below the treeline, and judging by the orange hue in the sky it wouldn't be long before it had gone below the horizon as well. Zuko had been carrying the waterbender over his shoulder for several hours now, and while she wasn't too heavy the strain of sustaining a whole other human being was grating at his muscles, his legs telling him to finally call it quits and set her down, he obliged and lowered her down on the floor seated. Katara didn't meet his eyes as he set her down, only when he stated to stand up did she point her fierce blues at him, she was glaring, she seemed to do that a lot lately.

"Don't move."

As if to taunt his command she looked away. Grimacing, Zuko stalked away to gather some wood he could use to build a campfire, but made sure not to stray too far so he couldn't keep his eye on her. The fallen sticks all around the creek were humid; the pieces of useful lumber to burn were sadly few and far between, Zuko would need to feed the fire a lot of his own flames to make sure it wouldn't go out in the middle of the night. Last thing he wanted was to go to sleep and wake-up with one of those tigers looking down at him, ready to bite.

Katara had repositioned herself sitting on a rock while she waited for the Prince to come back. Somehow being bound, gagged, and kidnapped while sitting on something was far more dignified than being bound, gagged and kidnapped while on the cold muddy floor below. Her eyes glanced over at the banished Prince, her blue eyes constantly narrowed and moving around, roving and planning for any escape she could come up with, but very little was coming to mind, and what was that seemed feasible involved her not having her arms stuck to her sides uselessly like this. Katara growled low to no one in particular and lowered her head, staring at the mossy floor at her feet.

Her attention was brought back to the sound of several sticks and bits of timber falling in a pile in front of her, courtesy of Zuko.

"Told you not to move." He said, not angry at her so much as with himself for not noticing she'd moved until just now. Katara didn't dignify him with a glance at his face, she kept staring daggers ahead of her.

Zuko spent the next few minutes slowly building a campfire right in front of her eyes. He struggled with it at first, Katara noted, chances are this was one of the first fires he'd built by himself. No doubt he'd had little need for pits of fire back at his palace, his big scary dark ship that produced clouds of ash. He'd never needed to fend for himself, Katara brooded, not like her, Sokka, Aang, or Toph. No, he probably had his every whim catered to on that ship while hunting for the Avatar. Katara's eyes weren't nearly as scorching as Zuko's, being calming blue to his gleaming yellow, but if she could produce fire with her eyes then the male teen before her would be on fire already.

At the thought of setting him on fire with her imaginary eye powers Zuko punched a small ball of fire at the bundle of sticks, instantly the flames fed on the wooden fuel. Ok so he wasn't as incompetent at building camp as she thought, he could certainly kindle flames in a fraction of the time it'd take her brother, but that's only because burning things was this guy's only ability! At least that's what she reasoned.

"Stop staring," his voice brought her out of her inner thoughts, he was dusting off his hands while still eyeing the fire in front of him before turning his head at the side to face her, "It's annoying."

Out of spite she now stared right up at his eyes and held the stare. He gazed back with his own scowl. Zuko's eyes lingering on hers for a second longer before moving down to her mouth, the white gag came from either side of her lips to tie the ends in a knot behind her head, her teeth were still softly biting on the cloth, he could tell. Again, his eyes lingered, this time on her lips, for a second longer than necessary before he looked away and sat on the floor, moving his gaze to the flames in front of him. He shoved the knowledge that Katara possessed a pair of rather plump soft-looking lips way deep in his brain. He didn't need to know that.

The sky slowly changed colors up above. The darkening blues and faint orange turned to deep empty black and specks of shiny light in the shape of tiny dots littered the sky. A crescent moon began making its way up into the sky just above the dark treetops. As the light around them began to fade, the flickering glow of the fire Zuko'd made shone brighter and brighter. The Prince sat a few inches away from the blazes, legs crossed beneath him and his hands sitting on his knees like he was meditating, his eyes boring into the elegant dance of the flames. Meanwhile, Katara's eyes bore into the side of Zuko's head. Katara still sat on top of the rock jutting from the ground, she spent the remainder of the day trying to casually loosen up the rope tied around her upper body but this damn jerkbender had tied her up real good. She grimaced at the sting of the rope as it dug into her flesh most unpleasantly; she no doubt had marks by now.

Zuko's empty stomach rumbled low yet loud enough to reach his ears, he could feel his hunger growing and churning in him even back when he carried the waterbender but he hoped that he could get to sleep before his stomach actually began to growl. He put his hand over his stomach and clenched with hand over it, reprimanding himself for showing weakness in front of his enemy like this, he only hoped she hadn't heard it as well, maybe over the sound of running water, the crackling of the fire and the occasional owl's howl she hadn't picked up on it. He dared not look, but he could still feel her eyes on him.

Katara's eyebrows rose a bit. Did Zuko's stomach just rumble? Was he hungry? Her brow furrowed in thought and she willed herself to look over at the creek not more than a few feet away from both of them. She'd seen a few fishes swimming the stream back when he still was carrying her over his shoulder, the memory of being so powerless and in his care brought warmth to her cheeks and an embarrassed frown to her lips. Somehow, knowing Zuko could get hungry made her have second thoughts that he was a monster, like he was suddenly a human for having that basic function. Weird, she'd never considered that the scarred moody firebender ever did or craved anything else other than capturing Aang.

Her hands weren't bound to her sides quite like her arms were, she could still open her hands, move her fingers, rotate her wrist and theoretically waterbend a little. Theoretically, at least. Nothing too impressive, maybe not even do something remotely useful, but her abilities were still there. Katara's natural need to help and nurture those around her got the better of her, so she convinced herself to at least try.

Zuko sighed and leaned back on his elbows, he'd managed to quiet his stomach down for now from sheer willpower but who knew how long that'd last. He had to stay up well after the girl fell asleep to make sure she didn't try and escape, and make sure she wouldn't fake being asleep to then try and sneak in the middle of the night, only afterwards would he allow himself to rest. Until then, he had to remain strong and vigilant; he would show no weakness in front of this waterbender. He'd be unyielding and stoic as a rock and-

The wet flop of a fish smacking Zuko's head and then splashing down onto his chest rang out in the sudden silence.

… What…?

Zuko took his hand up to the side of his head and stroked where he was hit, he could feel the cold water still cling to his skin and drip down his face. Looking down he saw the stilled dead eyes of a green fish, water still dribbling off of it, its scales glistening from the flames of the fire. The firebender was just about to start wondering if he'd accidentally fallen asleep before the girl and he'd started dreaming about fishes raining from the sky, before he made the connection that fishes swam in water, and a waterbender was sitting just a few feet away from him. He looked over at her, his eyes wide and startled. He caught her staring at him, her own eyes wide like she was surprised herself before she looked away pretending nothing happened.

Katara didn't exactly intend to fling the fish at her, but it was so hard to properly control the creek's running water when her movements were so constricted, and to make it worse the fish were very slippery from her watery grip. Eventually she did manage to catch one in a little bubble of water she lifted off the body of water, but the creature wiggled around too much and Katara acted on instinct, throwing the bubble of water into dry land before the fish could wiggle its way back into the shallow creek. It did bring her a modicum of satisfaction that she'd managed a good hit on him; she rationalized later, some payback for carrying her around on his shoulder all day.

"Thank you." the Prince's voice wasn't unexpected, as soon as she realized her mistake and the way the fish smacked his head Katara naturally expected him to berate her and throw the fish back into the water, but the grateful comment sure was a surprise. Her eyebrows perked up and she took a tentative glance his way before looking away.

Zuko properly cleaned the fish then personally cooked it using his abilities. He was kind enough to take the gag off her mouth and even loosen up her bindings enough for her to grasp at her half of the cooked fish and feed herself with it. Of course he made sure he ate first and then kept a very close eye on the girl as she ate, not wanted her to take any liberties now that her arms were freed up. Katara was reluctant at first to accept the food she'd caught for him, now that he'd prepared it it made her feel like there had been cooperation between them and she wanted none of that, but eventually she conceded and at her own portion as the pang of hunger in her began to swell.

The fire was crackling softly now, Zuko lay on his back on the ground; one arm under his head for comfort, his breathing was calm as he willed himself to slowly accept slumber. The glow of the flames lighted up his left side, and to his right Katara lay, curled up and facing away from him. He'd bound her arms again, less tightly than before when he noticed her arms were marked, and he didn't bother putting the gag over her mouth, after the dinner she was passive enough that he felt confident that for the time being they had a mutual agreement not to be too much of a pain on the ass on the other person's side. Yet Zuko was still sure she expected to flee whenever she could find an opportunity to do so.

Zuko closed his eyes tighter at the repeating chattering sound of teeth from right beside him. The annoying sound hadn't gone away, like an annoying fly it kept itself around and at the least opportune times it made a crescendo. He opened his eyes and turned his head to look over at her, she'd been clacking her teeth like that for nigh a whole hour now.

"Can you stop doing that? You'll draw the tigers to our location." He warned her, maybe exaggerating a bit, the chattering wasn't loud enough for that of course, but then again, what if the weird predators didn't have those huge ears just for show?

"C-ca-can't h-help it… too c-chilly…" Katara's voice so shaky she could barely make herself discernible through the night sounds. The South Pole was far more unforgiving with its weather than the Earth Kingdom but back home she always had a cozy hut and a warm fire heating up the enclosed tent, not to mention a warm fluffy parka to insulate the heat and keep it from dissipating. But now she lay on the cold ground, the fire wasn't helping her much at all since it was out in the open, and she'd long since traded her warm parka for cooler Water Tribe gear once they got to the Earth Kingdom. Katara closed her eyes tight and willed herself for the hundredth time now to fall asleep, at least if she were sleeping she wouldn't be awake to feel the goosebumps on her skin, her teeth clacking, the gusty wind that blew through the trees.

Zuko rolled his eyes and turned his face away from her to stare into the dancing fire tendrils of the campfire. He didn't think it was that chilly. Sure, it felt a bit colder than usual but he assumed that was because of the running body of water just a few footsteps beside them. It still wasn't uncomfortably cold, not by a long shot. And Zuko's ratty Earth Kingdom refugee clothes were just as heat preserving as Katara's, perhaps even less so since his had holes and tears here and there. He mimicked the waterbender and turned to his side as well to face the fire, his back to hers like hers was to him, he closed his eyes and tried to get some rest, putting his trust that the girl would be making no attempts to run away while he took a little nap.

Even turned away from her he could still hear her; Katara's chattering wasn't his main concern anymore, she was now shuddering faintly and he could even listen to her grumble to herself very low. He tried to ignore her for a few minutes before he got sick of it and looked over his shoulder at her. Katara lay still in her stop, his eyes roving her figure, trailing over the contour of her hip before he caught her shivering. Zuko breathed out a sigh and decided to do her a solid, a little compensation for her helping out with his hunger earlier.

Katara tried to maintain herself as still as she could to not lose anymore of her heat but her body, like it had a mind of its own, would shudder regardless every few seconds, she'd even had to start biting down on her bottom lip so her teeth would stop making noise. God forbid she interfered with the Prince's beauty sleep. She wished her arms were free instead of stuck uselessly at her sides, not only was it uncomfortable but her fingers felt ice cold, she desperately wanted to cup them to her mouth and breathe some warmth into her hands. Katara imagined sleeping on top of Appa to stave off the cold thoughts; the big fluffy animal was warm and quite cozy to nap on. The positive warm thoughts seemed to be working suddenly, she could even feel her numb hands and arms start to regain some heat and soon after her back started warming up as well. She let go of her bottom lip with a pleasant sigh and leaned in closer to the warm body nuzzling her, engulfing her form in the nice warm body that was blanketing her.

Her eyes shot open in realization.

Body?

Regaining her bearings she now realized that an arm had wrapped itself around her waist while a surprisingly sturdy chest and abdomen that emanated soothing warmth was pressed up against her back and rear.

"Sleep." His voice came, his warm breath whispering into the back of her ear, it sent tingles down her spine. The good kind of tingling. He spoke like he'd expected her to say something as soon as she flinched in realization.

"What're you doing?" Katara somehow found the voice to speak, noting instantly that the chattering ailment had dissipated. She was thankful she'd turned to face away from him otherwise he would now be able to see the clear blush on her cheeks.

"Keeping you from keeping me awake for the rest of the night." He plainly answered, opting to overlook the other reason: wanting to keep her warm as a 'thank you' from earlier.

She opened her mouth, racking her mind to think of a good valid reason to protest but again Zuko knew when she was about to speak and spoke one last time. "Just shut up and sleep." She closed her mouth, her teeth biting down on her bottom lip as she pondered this. He did feel… very warm. Did all firebenders feel this warm, or was he the only one? Katara swallowed her pride and allowed herself one night of weakness, leaning into his gentle embrace and welcoming his shared body heat.

Her blush only grew in intensity when she inadvertedly pushed her bottom against his crotch and rubbed it for a second before realizing what she was doing and stopping. Katara sensed him tense at her action but he didn't say anything. It had been completely and totally unintentional! It's just that that particular spot felt a smidge warmer than the rest of his fiery body. His tension dissipated after a few moments letting Katara release a sigh of relief and thankfully he didn't comment on it, or even more embarrassingly, never told her to stop. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides and her toes curled in her boots. Suddenly Katara wasn't so sure that even with this snug warm body against her she would be able to sleep, but closed her eyes anyway, and after many more moments of feeling her cheeks flaring up at the close proximity she thankfully, mercifully, slipped into a calm slumber.

The light of the sun was beginning to peek through the sky, the massive scorching orb rising slowly but surely past the horizon. With the main source of his powers rising then so did Zuko and he instantly noted the body he was holding onto tightly. Unclasping the hold he had on the girl quickly, the Prince immediately began having second thoughts about giving her such a favor last night, it had been very unlike him and he didn't like that. It'd felt, good, he supposed, but he didn't like that it felt good. She was the enemy, she was his prisoner to trade for the Avatar, she wasn't supposed to be a warm, soft body he could cling onto during the night like some lover. Zuko realized that he was sitting with one arm propped and was staring down at the peasant girl, his eyes gazing at her mouth, the way if just barely moved as she breathed. He forced his body to tear away from her dormant form and stood up, rubbing some of the sleep from his eyes with one hand.

The fire had long since died out in the middle of the night shortly after Zuko passed out but the firebender's naturally elevated temperature gave him the luxury of not feeling the bite of a cold morning at dawn. The birds were beginning to awake and faint chirping could be heard from atop the trees and the water running down the creek was pleasant, peaceful and calming.

The sound of a twig breaking echoed not too far away. Suddenly birds stopped making noise and even the streaming body of water quieted down. Zuko looked up from rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, the golden irises narrowing in suspicion. He quickly got on one knee next to Katara and put one hand on her shoulder, shaking her, trying to wake the sleeping beauty up. He didn't realize till much later that he'd just thought of her as a beauty right then and there.

"Wake up, we've got company."

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**AN: Aaaaaaaaaahhhh! Thank you so much for all the reviews, faves and alerts, guys! I'm glad people like my silly ramblings and want to (for whatever reason) see more of it, it really bolsters my mood and humbles me to see all this support. I'm sorry for the slow update, I was actually almost done yesterday but ended up losing part of my progress and needed to write a portion of the story again D: Hope I made up for it with some extra funny and fluffy moments in this chapter! Again, if there's any criticisms from pacing to character portrayals or anything else, please let me know! Next chapter will be more on the action and survival department so look out for that!**

_rebornrose_


	3. Chapter 3

_it's like I checked into rehab_  
_and baby you're my disease_

_~rihanna_

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It was such a pleasant moment, sitting on top of a cliff facing the sea while waves crashed against the rocky formations down below with their soothing melody, a bright yellow sun set in the horizon, slowly sinking in that infinite blue ocean that seemed to go on forever and ever, the ball of flames turning orange with time and the sky above darkening as the last remnants of sunlight were doused out in the massive body of water.

In front of her was a humble firepit, the dancing tendrils of yellow flame feasting on the wood they sat atop, while a well-constructed stone wall kept the fire from spilling out and kindling the grassy field around it. Katara's blues were glued to the elegance before her, a small smile tugging at the tip of her lips. Holding her legs up to her chest she rested her chin on her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging herself. A chill was coming from the sea, and normally it would've made her shiver but not this time.

Another pair of arms were wrapped around her body, holding her close to his front, and like a puzzle piece she fit oh so nicely against the form.

Her smile never faltered, she knew the person was there and she didn't mind it one bit. He shielded her from the ice cold, his hug was cozy and protective, the strong chest she felt press against her back gave her a sense of being in complete safety, the arms wrapped around her curled up body were larger than hers, heavier than hers, stronger than hers. It made Katara's tummy feel good and her mind hazy with a series of thoughts, she resisted the urge to hold onto this person's forearms with her own hands. She was so warm and everything felt pleasant.

The Southern Tribe girl suddenly had an urge to plant her lips on someone else's lips, the person holding her's lips, more specifically. She swallowed hard, her throat feeling drier than a desert all of a sudden but she went on; turning her head to look over her shoulder at this mysterious man. He was looking back at her, her heart fluttered. He was completely covered in a shadow despite the glow of the fire in front of them but his eyes shone through and she lingered on them for what felt like hours, just staring at them. They were pure gold.

Her head leaned up with her lips parted, her eyes lidded now, wanting to thank this stranger for the pleasant feeling he was giving her. That seemed like the right thing to do. But the kiss never came. After an uncomfortable moment she opened her eyes and saw that the figure behind her was gone, and along with him her warm embrace. She looked around her but could find no trace of him in the shadows that suddenly were closing in on her. Katara inched herself closer to the protective glow of the fire and reasoned that he had only gone out to gather some more fire wood. That's it. Burying the pang of rejection that suddenly gripped her heart.

A dried fallen stick snapped behind her and for some reason it was the most terrifying sound imaginable, Katara sat up at lightning speed and turned to face whatever had caused it, she seriously doubted it was her warm hugger friend. She saw a pair of eyes watching her from the darkness; they were gold just like the unknown paramour. They were joined by another pair appearing out of nowhere to its left. Then another to its right, and then two to the right, three to the left. The numbers kept growing and Katara could now hear the rumble of growling coming from them.

Katara took a hesitant step back and felt her back bump into a strong chest. She immediately recognized it as the person who was just moments ago holding her and turned around, ready to fling her arms around his shoulders for more of that security this person exuded, but before she could lay her hands on him she noticed how despite the human shape of the body, the eyes were narrowed like some raging animal and from the pitch black of where his mouth should be a pair of sharp white teeth came into view instead, baring them with a snarl and shining from the dancing flames to his side.

Katara's heart was thumping so hard against her ribcage she thought she would break it. Then from behind her something heavy pressed down on her shoulder and pain shot through her body, it felt like a paw with its dagger-sharp claws sinking into her flesh, ripping and tearing.

Her big blue eyes shot open with urgency and she found herself breathing hard, her heart still thumping in her chest. Her eyes wandered about and she saw nothing but trees in front of her. Her heart sank when she realized something was touching her shoulder. Swallowing hard and closing her eyes momentarily to regain courage she turned her head suddenly and looked up at whatever was holding her shoulder.

Much to the girl's relief it was only Zuko. Wow, that was a thought she never thought she'd have, never ever in her lifetime would she think being woken up by a moody firebender with a scary-looking scar on his face would be a relief, but it was on this instance at least. He wasn't looking down at her, kneeling behind her his hand was on her shoulder, his touch very warm and pleasant, much like the man from her dreams, but his gaze was looking away into the forest, she could only see his scarred side from this angle but his eye seemed to be inspecting between the trees for any movement. From the corner of his eye he finally noticed her looking up at him.

"Good, you're awake. Get up, we have to move." He stood up after looking down at her and held out a hand for her to grasp and looked away from the drowsy girl yet again, his eyes once more roving over the surrounding area.

Blinking, Katara took a moment to try and reach out for his hand with her own, but when she did try she failed miserably, her arms bound to her side kept her from accepting his help. She awkwardly cleared her throat to get his attention and said, "Uh… a little help?"

For a second Zuko stared down at her wondering what she meant? He was already giving her a hand to pull her up, what else did she need? Then a torch flicked with fire in his mind and he knelt back down, aiding in standing her up, Katara could swear that for a brief moment as he knelt back down that she caught the beginnings of an embarrassed blush painted across his pale cheeks.

As he got down and began pulling her up the last memories she made last night came flooding back to her mind. His hand on her back pushing her up brought back the recently familiar warmth of his chest and abs pressed against her back, his other hand grabbing one of her hands for stability as he stood her up made her reminisce about how his arm protectively wrapped around her waist last night and stayed there till she fell into a slumber. She didn't need any contact with her bottom to recall how she'd rubbed herself against his warmth before getting a hold of herself, though.

She fought back hard the blush that threatened to break out on her face as those memories came back at her. Katara also shook from her sleep-rattled head this preposterous notion that Zuko was charming in any way. He was still the enemy, his ilk killed her mother, his people made the world into the mess it is today, and most villainous of all, he wanted to still capture Aang. Ok so he wasn't as unredeemably evil as she thought he was, Zuko had shown her comfort last night without him even asking, but that didn't make him a particularly good person, not at all. But… Katara wanted to give him a shot, maybe if he wasn't a great person he was at least a decent one, no? Or perhaps even, if he wasn't the greatest guy around, he could hopefully change for the best?

Katara finally stood with the Prince's help and Zuko gave her a once-over, she picked that moment to talk.

"Thanks," and shot him a small appreciative smile, nothing too major, nothing to give him an inkling of a thought that she'd surrendered and become his bargaining chip against Aang and the rest, but enough that he could see she was giving him a chance for the two to get along. She cringed at how stiff her shoulders and arms felt from being tied for nearly a whole day now.

"Would… would you mind loosening up the rope? Please?" she asked him, wincing as she tried to rotate one shoulder to stretch it. Zuko stared at her, his eyes burning into her and he seemed to really be considering it, but before he could move or give her an answer a growl came from the woods behind him, even Katara heard it, the two teens quickly turned to face it.

**...**

**...**

**...**

"I don't know Aang, I still don't see her…" Sokka spoke, peering over Appa's sattle, one hand over his brow to shield him from the sunlight, the Water Tribe warrior looked out into the grassy fields below hunting fruitlessly for any signs of his little sister.

Toph was about to make a joke at her expense on how she didn't see Katara either to lighten the mood, but before the blind earthbender could do so Aang interrupted her, the young monk sitting atop the flying bison's head holding onto the reigns with so hard his knuckles had gone pale.

"Keep looking, Sokka!" the airbender shouted back, his voice nervous, "She's got to be around here somewhere…" the young boy couldn't shake off the feeling of guilt, he should've never let her get off the bison.

Katara's sibling let out a tired sigh after looking over at Aang and went back on his search. The hunt had been going since before dusk last night and they were all tired by this point, even Toph who could've just as easily napped the night away since her blindness made her nigh useless at the moment had soldiered through this for the sake of the team. They were all worried for Katara, but none so much as Aang.

"Fine, but when we find her," Sokka was back peering over the saddle, his eyes narrowed and that hand back up to cover his brow despite the fact that it was only dawn and the sun wasn't fully out yet, "We're going to come up with a new rule for the group; nobody –especially Katara– is allowed to get off Appa to go smelling flowers while everyone else is busy making their way to a sleeping lodge. All those in favor say 'Aye'"

"Aye" Toph said, sitting lazily against the rim of the saddle, her legs spread and arms crossed over her chest, for the voting she let go of one arm and even raised it up to confirm her decision.

"… Aye" Aang spoke after a moment. It hadn't seemed like such a bad idea when Katara proposed it. She caught eye of something pretty down there and asked to be let off and picked back up again when the matter of where they'd be lodging for the night was dealt with. Aang couldn't believe she'd gotten herself lost.

"Great, we shall inform her of our newly reached agreement once we-…" Sokka narrowed his eyes even more so, some movement not too far away catching his eye, "I think I see something…"

Aang looked over his shoulder at where Sokka was staring at, his face lighting up with joy that they had found her, "Is it Katara?" the monk excitedly asked but before actually listening for a response he already turned Appa to head in that direction, relief flooding through his whole being. Sokka unexpectedly went rolling on his back from the sudden change of direction till he slammed against the hard rim of Appa's saddle. The warrior sat up next to Toph, who seemed unaffected by the whiplash, and rubbed the back of his head while wincing.

"… I think it's some old chubby guy drinking tea."

**...**

**...**

**...**

Footsteps were quickly dashing through mats of dried leaves, overgrown grass, and fallen sticks, heavy breathing coming from two teenagers that were running for their lives could also be heard just as loudly.

"Hurry, they're getting close!" Zuko ordered her over his shoulder while leading her through the dense forest, his face sweaty and smudged with dirt from a few stumbles.

"I'm trying, okay?!" Katara tried to argue, if she wasn't running so out of breath she would've already tried to justify her slower pace due to those damn rope bindings keeping her from balancing properly. Her face was just as wet as his, but her clothes and skin considerably dustier from all the times she had accidentally fallen and tripped, Zuko had to run back to pick her up and pull her along with him at his pace for a few seconds before resuming the lead.

Zuko looked back at Katara and scowled, not at how much slower she was being but at the distant orange furred bodies he saw rapidly approaching, dashing through the trees with remarkable speed for their size, he could almost hear their heavy footsteps as they ran, and he certainly could hear the intimidating roars, growls and hisses they make. Zuko knew there was no use in duelling with these two monsters, even if Katara didn't have her waterbending abilities suppressed by the stupid rope he'd tied around her, the Prince wasn't sure two benders would be enough to properly fight back and defeat the tigers. They had to lose the pair yet again and quickly gain some ground of their own and hope they'd make it far away enough that they won't get caught once more.

The banished royal looked ahead of him and his eyes shot wide, he skidded to a halt at the sight before him, he even held out his arm to grab securely to a tree to make sure he wouldn't take one last deadly step.

Carefully Zuko inched closer to the edge and peered down at it. It had to be at least a 100 feet drop, but it was hard to estimate it properly as a huge canopy of trees littered down below. Who really knew how high of a drop this would be.

No, there was no way. No freaking way he was even going to consider this.

Katara's eyes stung with exhaustion, her pace was getting slower and slower and the beasts looming behind her only seemed to be getting quicker. Her lungs were burning and her leg muscles cramping. But she persisted and kept running, she had to or she'd die, she knew it, and she wasn't about to accept it.

No way. No freaking way was she even going to consider dying.

She peered ahead and saw Zuko just standing there, unmoving and facing away. Why did he stop? Did he seriously forget about the pair of ferocious tiger-rabbit monsters chasing after them?

A warning growl was heard within arms distance behind her and she didn't need to look back to see she was in very real danger, the warm misty breath that tickled against her tunic's back was enough to let her know that. Closing her eyes hard she willed one last charge, this was all or nothing. She meant to warn Zuko to move out of the way and keep running but in her panic it completely slipped her mind.

It was never fun to crash into someone face-first, and as Katara learned right there, crashing into Zuko's back was like smacking against a brick wall, but her speed and momentum ended up being enough to break that wall. Two surprised grunts echoed up on top of the cliffside, one hers more of a surprised squeak and one was Zuko's, genuinely startled. Katara could feel herself rotating in the air and eventually falling. Why was she falling? She opened her eyes and last thing she saw was the scarred moody teenager falling alongside her down into the bushy tops of a sea of trees. She never knew vegetation could be so rough till she blacked-out when a branch hit her square in the head.

Katara's head felt like it was about to burst, her eyelids were heavy and she felt dizzy beyond belief. It took her a few moments to struggle opening her eyes and when she did the waterbender saw something she never thought she'd see; the whole world was upside down. She looked around, which caused her head to throb, and realized that it wasn't the world that was upside down, it was her. She swayed from side to side with her legs and rope tangled up on a tree branch above her. Katara cursed her rotten luck, even in the fall and getting the rope tangled her arms were still bound uselessly to her side. Her headache kept getting worse making her close her eyes tight. Ugh, she really hoped Zuko'd cut the rope, all she wanted right now was to rub her temples with her hands.

Her eyes shot wide suddenly and she fought the migraine swelling up in her head to turn her head from side to side in search for the Prince. Had he died? Gotten injured? It felt like a pretty high drop, the possibility of death wasn't far fetched at all.

"Zuko?" her voice had a bit of panic to it as she called out for him.

Her heart calmed down as she heard a moody grumbling coming from behind some thick foliage on a branch not too far away. She could recognize that annoyed mumbling anywhere. Soon enough she saw, with an upside down view, the scarred teen sit up in his own branch, hand going straight for the top of his head to rub, seemed like he'd had just as much of a rough fall as she had. Katara breathed a sigh of relief, but convinced herself that she'd only done it because she'd rather not face the tigers by herself, rather than truly caring about his well-being.

Zuko rubbed away at a bruise on the rightmost side of his forehead. He winced at the touch, he winced at the sore feeling all throughout his body, actually. It was a miracle how none of his bones had been broken by a branch or he'd been skewered by some sharp stick. As he sat up he kept rubbing at his head to ease away the pain, flinching slightly as he sat, okay maybe he had a few slightly cracked ribs, but he'd endured worse. He groaned loudly as he attempted to stand up and held one hand out at the tree's trunk for balance. He looked over past the branch. He was still way up, enough that jumping down would be a real pain, and he had enough pain already.

"Zuko!" a girl's voice called and the firebender immediately whipped his head at the source, but saw nothing. The voice called again, "Down here!" was he hearing things? He took a step forward, carefully keeping his hand on his tree to not slip, fall again, and break his damn neck, and saw the bizarre sight of Katara hanging upside down from a branch a few trees away. One would've assumed the waterbender was blushing by how red her face was, but Zuko knew better, all the blood was pouring into her head. Damn, how long had he been out? How long had she been like this.

He eased his way to Katara, jumping from tree branch to tree branch carefully, whenever he'd land and grab onto a branch he always instinctively looked at Katara so he wouldn't lose sight of her, and he could always see the stressed look she had, how she'd cringe and flinch with every jump. It would almost be cute if it didn't feel so patronizing.

Finally he made his way to his dangling partner's tree, inching slowly on her branch for fear that the shaky wood would snap in an instant and cause them both to fall to their demise. Zuko tried hard not to peek over at the ground, suddenly developing vertigo. He knelt down by her legs and held onto her feet for fear she'd slip and fall without his help. He investigated the best course of action, rubbing at his chin with his index finger; Katara would have rolled her eyes at this if her head wasn't searing with pain.

"I need you to try and curl up and I'll grab onto the ropes, then pull you up to the branch," he explained it down to her, his eyes locking with hers to see if she understood him.

"Got it," she nodded up at him, wincing as she tried to do a sit-up, her whole abdomen seared with pain, she had undoubtedly hit a couple more branches after she'd blacked-out, Katara would be quite bruised tomorrow. Zuko reached out with his arm, stretching it as far down as he could to help make this easy on her, his fingers uncurled and ready to cling at the first inkling of rope to pull her up.

One loud, heavy body fell from the sky, landing on the bushy foliage just above them. Then another followed it mere seconds later. The bushes above the teens were rattling and leaves were being moved around as two large bodies regained their bearings.

Katara mid-sitting up stared up past Zuko, her eyes wide to show her big blues. Zuko, still with his arm stretched out for her had also looked up, even with his constantly narrowed scarred eye he stared with the same wide vision as the girl. The blood disappearing from their face before one feline roar came up from above, followed suitably by its companion.

"You've gotta be kidding me…" both of them spoke in tandem, same lack of enthusiasm, same fear, same tone. They looked at one another and shared a surprised look, whether it was because of sharing the same thoughts at that particular moment or for fear and understanding of what was about to happen, one would never know.

"Quick!" Zuko told Katara, his arm reaching down a couple inches now that he lowered himself a bit more dangerously on the branch.

Katara was of the same mind and doubled her efforts to sit up, but whether because of the massive headache, the blood poured into her head, or the cracking pain on her ribs she was curling upwards for the sit-up slowly. Gritting her teeth hard, sweat rolled down the side of her face.

Impatiently Zuko often found himself looking up to see if the damn cats had jumped down. Much to his horror he noticed one blurry figure jumping from one branch to another, and another, and another, it was slowly making its way down, and from the rustling noise coming from the other way, so was the other bastard.

"Hurry up!" he called out to her, peering from the corner of his one good eye.

"I'm trying!" Katara said with a huff and inched upwards a bit more.

One snarl came from a few trees to the side of the two of them, Zuko whipped his head and saw that one of the tigers made it down to a tree not too far from them, maybe 4 branches away, it was hard to be certain. It made Zuko gulp hard, but he kept eye contact with the beast, his amber eyes fighting with the matching pair the beast had. The big cat seemed to have no other goal other than attack Katara and Zuko, it began jumping quickly from branch to branch making its way to the two of them in no time, he was just one single lunge away from their branch. Zuko never looked away.

Suddenly the tips of the banished Prince's fingers grazed against the rope going across Katara's chest and he grabbed onto it, the girl's form was shaking from the effort of pulling her body weight up through broken ribs, but Zuko had a quick surge of strength and with a single pull of his arm he managed to pull Katara up, the ferocious beast within jumping distance chose that exact moment to throw itself at them.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The tiger with its long claws out soaring through the air, mouth wide open to show off the deadly teeth that went past its jaw. Katara being pulled up by Zuko on top of the wobbly branch, her look of relief from getting rid of all that tension building up in her sore core, unaware of the immediate danger the two of them were in, she even flashed him a small smile as she finally got up at level with him. Zuko met eyes with hers and he caught that smile. It was a shame that they couldn't pull her up fast enough and now they were about to be clawed to death. The slowly approaching doom looming from right behind Katara was a powerful wake-up call, Zuko still with his hand grasping the rope tied across the girl's chest pulled her up close to his body, it looked like a hug, the Prince's free arm wrapping around her shoulders. One last moment of comfort for both of them.

And then, everything moved in the blink of an eye. The saber-tooth rabbit-tiger missed Katara's back by a mere inch, those dark razor-sharp claws tearing away not at flesh but at rope and fabric from the waterbender's back. The additional weight of the creature as it landed on the branch was the straw that broke the camel's back and with a loud ear-piercing snap the whole thing fell down, the two benders and raging animal along with it. Katara's arms naturally wrapped around the body in front of her as she felt themselves falling. Her eyes, widened since he'd pulled her close now closed vigorously, she clung to his body and he held onto hers as both fell into the ground below.

The predator managed to, like a cat, use its claws to hold onto the closest tree and skid to a halt up above in the tree, glaring down with a snarl at the two hugging humans. Its eyes narrowed viciously and even though the animal wasn't a firebender, its eyes shone with just as much fire and malice.

The two teens clung to each other as they fell, more out of instinct to brace their bodies than anything else, really. Neither quite knows who hit the ground first, but they both felt it just as hard with matching pained grunts. Their bodies absorbed every hard place they landed upon and the annoying ache as they rolled down a slope. Both should be glad that it was a slope they landed down upon rather than flat ground that'd squish them in a second but neither was thinking about that as they held onto one another. If the two thought they were bruised and sore from falling down to the trees they were sorely mistaken.

It genuinely felt like they'd rolled down this slopped terrain for several minutes until they began to grind to a halt as speed wavered and the ground slowly flattened, by the time they finally slowed down both bodies were in each other's arms. Zuko was the last to roll on his back while they hugged, the remaining momentum made Katara roll over onto her back at Zuko's side as he let go of her body, feeling the immediate danger of sharp rocks and hard tree roots gone.

Zuko wheezed for air, his lungs burning and his body smoldering in pain. He closed his eyes tight and his hands went to rest at his ribs, clutching them painfully, gritting hard his bloody teeth he rolled to the side, away from Katara, but even that simple act made him jolt. Yeah, his ribs were definitely broken now. Shattered even, if that one jagged rock he remembers quite stabbing up at his side while they rolled down had anything to say about it.

Katara breathed next to him, her eyes were a second away from bawling at all the pain she felt. Her mouth felt bloody, her arms stung from a collection of freshly made scratches and bruises and her back was killing her. At the sound of painful coughing she turned her head to the side, movement that made her realize even her neck ached painfully so, and saw Zuko curled up facing away from her, coughing violently and cursing low at sharp rocks and dumb rabbit-tigers.

It was too painful to stand, so the idea didn't even cross her mind, but Katara managed to roll onto her stomach and slowly crawl up to Zuko. Getting on her hands and knees she reached out with her hand and touched his shaking shoulder, only for him to pull away from her touch.

"Don't… touch m-me…" his voice reached her ears, followed by a fit of bloody coughs, she'd never heard his voice so shaky and weak before.

Katara herself coughed and sat with her legs to her side, using one arm to keep her up and then had another look at Zuko, being mindful not to touch him while he was so aggressive and angry with… whomever it was, himself most likely. She noticed with a small gasp that he'd taken the blunt of the damage as the two rolled down the hill. His larger body just naturally protected hers, it only made sense with how snugly she curled up into his embrace and how tightly he'd held her. Katara clearly had her own bruises, scrapes and aches, but it was easy to anyone with a pair of working eyes that Zuko was worse off, even if you ignored the blood that spurted from his mouth with every cough.

Desperately, Katara forced herself to stand up, her knees begged her not to put any weight on them and her ribs felt like they were strangling her lungs, so she wrapped an arm around her ribs, wincing at the pain but choosing to ignore it. She frantically looked around, trying to see for anywhere the two could hide, she needed to heal him and heal herself before they could even think about going back to escaping.

It seemed they'd slid down to less of a forested area, and more of a rocky field with only a handful of trees spurting out from the ground. About 20 feet ahead the ground inclined yet again, but far less steep, as a calm river coursed through, on the other side of said river the ground leaned back up in a shallow rocky hill and then a rocky formation too steep to climb, shortly past the hill at the base of the crag something caught Katara's eye.

"A cave!" she breathed out with relief, if her mouth didn't taste like blood she would even be smiling. Crouching down behind Zuko she put her hands on him, expecting him to bark back at her another command to unhand him along with a threat that he'd burn her to smithereens, but he kept quiet. His form still flinched at the gentle touch of her hands on his shoulder and arm but he did not complain this time.

"Come on, we'll be safer there than out in the open," Katara told him, putting her whole weight into pushing him up into a sitting position as gently as she could, still unaware of how potentially injured Zuko was, and for his part Zuko clenched his teeth as she brought him up, pain roaring through his body. It was beyond bizarre to see the foe she'd so long feared look so frail and hurt all of a sudden. For the longest time Katara always pictured Zuko as the unyielding monster he made himself out to be with the way he always came back for Aang and how determined he was in his pursuit of the Avatar, but with him as a bleeding young man, holding onto her for support as she helped him stand put everything into perspective. Zuko was no less of a human than her.

The Katara from not too long ago would have berated her present self for how she kept humanizing the scarred menace.

It took them painfully long to make their way down to the river, Zuko mutely walked beside her, one arm draped over Katara's shoulder after she insisted he use her to support himself, one hand going to his own ribs, clutching at a particularly wet spot on his clothes, his pale hands stained with the dark red of blood as it gushed from the wound. Katara's arm wrapped around the firebender's waist to help move him along and her free hand going to press on his chest to keep him steady as they walked. Although feeling up the hard pectorals underneath his ragged tunic did feel pretty nice. Her eyes moved to the Prince next to her often, worry overflowing from her blues.

The Katara from not too long ago would also have berated her present self for not only 'coping-a-feel' of him, but daring to feel sorry for Zuko.

Thankfully, once they made it to the river their work was cut out for them. With Katara's freed up arms she conjured up an ice float using her waterbending. She bent the water underneath to move them through to the other side.

It felt good to be able to move her arms freely like that again, and even more so to bend her element to her heart's delight, it was liberating. So liberating that the aches on her arms seemed to dull as she carried both of them through the water in than thin little floating ice-circle. Once they got off the float the strain came back to her arms, helping Zuko off and trudging the slope up to the cave. The rocky safety of the dark alcove just a few feet away now gave her hope. Katara so focused on the cave they could hide in that the small, rusty, moss-covered helmet that lay on the ground just by her feet went completely unnoticed.

The empty eyes of the long-abandoned helm watched as the Water Tribe girl aided the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation into the darkness of the cave. The metal was rusted beyond repair and cracked on the side, the moss coated the topside that'd been let to the mercy of the elements, but even though it was in a pathetic state the shape of it was evident for anyone who born within the last 100 years as to who it belonged to. A Fire Nation helmet.

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**AN: Woo-hoo! Third chapter's done! Thank you all for all the lovely support, I truly appreciate all the faves, alerts and views you guys have been giving! I've had a reviewer ask through private message why I add a little music lyric at the top of each chapter; it's either a song that I was hearing whilst writing that stuck with me or the song brings up themes present in the chapter. I also think having a little blurb at the top before the chapter starts proper is a bit better than jumping straight in, but that might be just me! Let me know if the lyrics are getting annoying and I'll reconsider having them up for my next series, but for now, and for continuity sake, I'll keep it going for the upcoming 2-3 chapters till this is finished.**

**By the way, that's the window I'm giving myself to finish this mini-series, I've noticed I keep rambling in the chapters and writing 5-6k word updates. I don't think anyone wants 20 chapters of that, you're all here for Zutara goodness. So yeah, 2 or 3 more chapters for a 5/6 chapter total.**

**Next chapter Katara finally gets her chance to shine!**

**Reviews with any mistakes on my part, tips, or general feedback are always welcome :]**

_rebornrose_


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